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If you want to build a career in software development, Fullstack offers you the best launchpad. Through a combination of thorough admissions, a carefully crafted curriculum & educational structure, and top-notch instructors, Fullstack's program takes passionate students with a base of programming skill and makes them into professional software engineers.

Our CTO Program has been developed with careful planning based on our experience founding, building and exiting tech companies and attending and teaching at top business schools. We know what it takes from a professional, personal and mental level to be a top-performer.

We love Ruby on Rails and Python/Django (we built our successful startups using those two stacks). However, the web industry waits for no developer or technology. The future of web development has moved towards sophisticated, responsive and dynamic "single-page" applications running in the browser. Apps like Gmail, Asana, Trello, Facebook and Google Maps have redefined what users expect from "Web Applications" and thus what developers need to be able to deliver. Listening to these industry trends, and after lots of research and conversations with our CTO colleagues at top startups from Y Combinator, we've come to the conclusion that full-stack JavaScript is the future of web development. Consequently, it is what we primarily immerse our students in at Fullstack Academy.

Full-stack JavaScript is the Best Way to Learn Web Development

Not only is full-stack JS where "the puck is moving," it is also the best way to learn how to code in general. Modern web development requires keeping many different parts of the stack in your mind at the same time. As a student, this is challenging enough. Now imagine that on top of this, each part of the stack requires you to understand and write in a completely different programming language (e.g. Ruby, SQL & JavaScript). The context-switch required by switching back and forth between languages significantly slows down the learning process. Full-stack JavaScript eliminates this problem as every part of the stack uses one language: JavaScript.

As evidence for how quickly one can be productive when learning on a single-language stack, recently Fullstack Academy teams won the Grand Prize at two different hackathons in New York City in the same month. Both winning teams were using full-stack JavaScript and were only 4 weeks into their semester at Fullstack. They each won $5,000 and $1,000 in cash prizes while competing with other serious teams made up of experienced developers. In December, Fullstack students swept the awards at the New York Times Hackathon, including the Best In Show and Category specific awards. More recently, students have won awards at NYC's Fintech hackathon and the Video Hack Day.

What about Ruby on Rails? Why are other schools teaching Rails?

When we first discovered Rails, in 2005, developers were coming from an age where PHP back-end sites were getting increasingly complex and were becoming difficult to manage and scale. Rails excelled in this world, where the goal was still to develop HTML/CSS centric web interfaces with heavy backends. Rails consolidated many of the "best practices" in back-end web development and made it easier for developers to build large sites in an organized way.

A lot has changed since 2005, however. Cutting-edge companies today want to give users highly interactive and responsive experiences that don't require a page refresh at every step. As a result, the web of today is dominated by "Single Page Applications" or SPAs written in JavaScript using frameworks like React or Ember.js, making JavaScript one of the best programming languages to learn. Increasingly, the role of Rails has shifted to serve as an API layer to the back-end of web applications. You can read more about why a a lot of schools teach Rails here.

On top of these reasons, JavaScript offers several educational advantages over other languages. And as the majority of other coding schools teach Ruby on Rails, Fullstack graduates have a more in-demand skill-set that separates them from the competition. Learn more about the educational and job seeking advantages offered by a JavaScript curriculum here: Is the programming language taught at a coding bootcamp important?

Our curriculum is based on the most cutting-edge tools in the industry right now. However, we know that tools, technologies and processes are constantly changing. Our goal is to make you an expert at the timeless fundamental concepts that will stay with you throughout your career. For more information about the current technologies that we're teaching across the full stack, please see our curriculum modules. Whether in our part-time for full-time courses, you'll learn the best material in the most efficient way possible.

All Immersive Fullstack courses start with a 4 week remote class called Fullstack Foundations. Foundations typically requires 25-30 hours of work per week. It includes learning materials, weekly assignments, and weekly one-on-one virtual office hours with a Fullstack instructor. Foundations will give you a solid base of web development knowledge and a deeper understanding of JavaScript, so you can hit the ground running when the in-class portion of your Fullstack experience starts.

The live class portion of Fullstack is a mixture of lecture, lab and personal development. Our lectures will give you a strong grasp of fundamental programming concepts and full-stack web development, and our labs have been developed to quickly cement ideas. This portion of Fullstack will start with a heavier focus on personal and module based learning, and transition into project and team based learning. There is also a strong focus on preparing for the hiring process after finishing Fullstack. For any graduates seeking jobs after Fullstack, you'll be well prepared for interviews and the job search.

Note: The Full-Time Immersive program now has a Monday-Saturday schedule each week (6 days per week) during the live portion. The Saturday addition is to cover our new computer science curriculum.

Absolutely. A large portion of the program is dedicated to students strengthening their understanding of software development by developing full-featured web applications. Guided lectures and workshops work well for covering fundamental concepts and introducing new technologies, but it also takes building something completely new and getting your hands dirty writing lots of code to gain a deeper understanding of fullstack web development. Students build 3+ projects while enrolled in Fullstack Academy's Immersive Courses. Check out the student projects page for more details.

This is difficult to say exactly, but we recommend using codewars.com challenges to gauge your application readiness. The challenges closely resemble the ones seen in the application-assessment. The levels (kyu) begin at eight and work down. If you can get to level 6 (or even a well-versed level 7) you’re likely ready to apply. We don’t require a perfect score on the assessment, but you must exhibit coding knowledge and sufficient logical reasoning. If you’ve tried to solve coding challenges and still feel uncertain, we recommend looking into our Bootcamp Prep courses, available both in-person and remotely.

Yes! Fullstack's Remote Immersive covers the exact same curriculum, structure, and pace as its in-person counterpart. We've taken a lot of care to make sure this program, available anywhere in the world, provides students with the high-quality, outcomes-driven education that Fullstack is known for.

The Full-Time Remote Immersive has the same base tuition as its in-person counterpart, however, there is a $500,000 scholarship fund for our remote program that all accepted applicants will automatically be considered for, both merit- and need-based scholarships.

Be sure to watch this walkthrough video of the learning platform to see what the educational experience will be like.

We set a high standard for ourselves and for you, and our tuition reflects that investment. Fullstack graduates are the cream of the crop in accelerated learning programs and we not only teach the most advanced and in-demand stack of technologies, we also work hard to recruit the best students. You will be surrounded by other brilliant and motivated students who will bring the best out in you. We strongly believe that Fullstack will get you better results than other schools, while our tuition is still less than a semester of a traditional college.

The first way we help students get jobs is by teaching an advanced, relevant curriculum that is constantly updated based on current tech trends. You finish Fullstack with a portfolio of projects and open-source code that demonstrates your knowledge of these technologies. You'll also be well practiced in the style of technical interview questions given in engineering interview.

Beyond that, we have several methods to make sure you get a great job after our program. We host Launch Day, an event where employers come and see the projects you've been working on, and you can connect one-on-one with target companies you're interested in. Additionally, we provide help through our own private network of startups and companies looking to hire developers. We also have a dedicated Placement Coordinator who will help connect you with the right person inside any company you're interested in applying to.

We also know that the cost of Fullstack is more than just the tuition. We will work with you long after graduation to make sure you stay sharp and prepared to get the career of your dreams. This includes mock interview practice, additional projects, and open lines of communication with us about your job search and career. You'll also join our large, growing network of alums in NYC and San Francisco (among other places).

Yes! Attending Fullstack while still in college is a great way to supercharge your post-college career prospects by adding high-demand, real world skills to your resume. There are 3 main ways that college students typically attend Fullstack:

Summer Break: We have a special cohort during the summer designed for college students: Summer of Code

Part-Time Flex Program: Spring or Fall Semester: Fullstack's Part-Time Flex Immersive program runs two weeknights and Saturdays. College students in the NYC metro area can attend that while still enrolled full-time at a traditional school, although we recommend not pursuing a heavy course load that semester while attending Flex.

Gap Semester: The final option for college students is to take a gap semester off from college and attend the full-time Fullstack Immersive course during the Spring or Fall. This experience functions similarly to a semester abroad, except that you're in the thriving NYC Tech scene, and there's a lot more learning and boost to your career prospects.

Part-Time Courses: Build or sharpen your programming skills in one of our shorter form part-time courses, held in the evenings and on Saturdays. This scheduling fits relatively easily into a normal class schedule.

Unfortunately we aren't currently able to accept tuition assistance payments from the new GI Bill (though we're working hard on changing this). In the meantime, all veterans should visit our friends at Operation Code, where you can find more information and ways to help support the cause. Veterans also automatically qualify for a $1,000 scholarship at Fullstack.

There's a great amount of resources available online to learn coding these days. They are particularly useful for learning the basics, since the concepts are not quite as complex and the problems/errors encountered are relatively easily to solve by one's self. However, self-driven learning becomes more difficult as you get into the intermediate and advanced areas of coding. You can easily get stuck, you don't have strong commitment methods or expert feedback, and you have to develop your own path of instruction (difficult for a beginner to do).

If you've done Codecademy, Code School/Team Treehouse, and built some small projects, and you're looking to take your programming career to the next level, attending Fullstack is a proven, fast-track way to achieve your goals.

Most importantly, you'll need to bring an open, well-rested and hungry mind ready for learning. We highly recommend using a Mac, but students have also had success using Linux (e.g. Ubuntu). For the immersive courses, an extra monitor is provided.

For the part-time courses, Macs are still preferred, but Windows/Linux machines are also fine.

A successful application process requires candidates to be intermediate or advanced-beginner programmers in a high-level programming language like JavaScript, Ruby, or Python. Applicants must score well enough on a 5 challenge, 75 minute assessment to be invited to the interview round with an instructor.

To prepare for these challenges and the interview phase, we recommend using codewars.com challenges. The levels (kyu) begin at 8 and advance downward. If you make it to level 7 (or preferably 6) you're likely ready to go forward in the application process.

If you're not yet at this level, we recommend additional resources including our beginner courses, JavaScript 101 and Bootcamp Prep (available remotely as well).

We accept candidates on a rolling basis. You can apply atanytime for any semester. After your application, we will contact you to complete a Stage 1 online assessment, followed by an in-person interview. We try our best to let accepted candidates know within one week of each stage of admissions.

Note: Fullstack's Part-Time courses (excluding the Flex-Immersive) are open enrollment and do not have any admissions process.

Once accepted you have the option to join any cohort beginning within 6 months of your acceptance date. Essentially, you have the freedom to apply whenever you feel comfortable approaching coding challenges. However, regarding deadlines, we recommend applying at least 7-9 weeks before the on-campus start-date of your desired cohort. This allows us 2-3 weeks to conduct the application process and accounts for the 5-week mandatory Foundations pre-work.

However, most cohorts begin filling-up about one month before the Foundations pre-work begins. With this in mind, the best time to apply is 2 (or ideally 3) months before your desired cohort's on-campus (or remote) start date.

Something to also consider is that it usually takes students 3-5 months to get up to admissions standards if they're starting from a pure beginner level. Plus, should you not be accepted on your first application attempt, we require candidates to study for an additional 2 months before reapplying.

Of course! The best way to visit and learn more about the program is to attend one of our information sessions or campus tours. Please register if you plan to attend.

Alternatively, you can also schedule a short campus visit if you are already in the admissions process. Please email admissions@fullstackacademy.com with the subject line "Campus Visit" to schedule one.

No. Bootcamp Prep readies you for the technical portion of the Fullstack admissions process, but completion of this course does not guarantee acceptance to our Software Engineering Immersive, Remote Immersive, or Flex Immersive programs. Fullstack's admissions process is the most thorough of all bootcamps, and we look for many qualities beyond just technical expertise. You will still need to complete the same coding assessment and interview process as all other Fullstack applicants. If you are accepted into any of Fullstack's immersive programs, all of the tuition from this course will count toward tuition for any immersive program. This also applies to tuition for The Grace Hopper Program at Fullstack Academy.

Salary ranges depend on a lot of factors: how well you performed in the immersive program, how well you've prepare for interviews, where in the country you're looking for a job, and your previous background and education. Averages don't tell the whole story but graduate salary outcomes can be found via our CIRR report.

Have more Questions?

Applying to a program like Fullstack is a big commitment and we understand that you might need some time to read up on our porgram.

Our
Quora page lists detailed accounts by both staff and alumni about each and every detail of the program. If you don't find an answer for your question, you can try asking one - who knows, you might get some very honest answers.